Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Early this morning, Robert Tilson Simmons Jr., 34, was apprehended after he allegedly pointed a firearm at a stranger behind a bar and attempted to conceal it from a police officer.

At approximately 2 a.m., officers from the Gainesville Police Department arrived at the 1700 block of W. University Avenue. The victim recounted that a man had been angrily talking to his girlfriend over the phone because they had been on a party bus together and she left him at the bar. The victim recalled telling the man, “I don’t know why she left you,” which angered him. The man shouted, “Don’t patronize me,” drew a pistol from his cross-body sling bag, and aimed it at the victim, prompting him to walk away in fear.

The victim described the suspect as a black male, wearing a blue hat reminiscent of University of North Carolina team colors, a white shirt, a wicks hairstyle, and carrying a black cross-body sling bag.

A police officer observed a gray Mazda sedan halted on NW 15th Street near NW 5th Avenue. A man exited from the passenger side and proceeded west on NW 5th Avenue’s sidewalk. The individual was a black male with a wicks hairstyle, dressed in a white shirt. Upon activating the patrol car’s lights and siren, the officer attempted to stop the man, who reportedly continued walking.

The individual, later identified as Simmons, allegedly walked behind a large oak tree and eventually emerged with his hands raised. An officer conducted a pat-down for weapons and informed Simmons that he matched the suspect’s description. Upon hearing this, Simmons reportedly quickly backed away, causing the officer to fear a potential escape and subsequently placing Simmons in handcuffs.

An officer retraced Simmons’s path and reportedly discovered a black cross-body sling bag containing a Glock 9mm pistol. Observations noted that although the grass around the bag was wet with dew, the bag itself was “dry and clean,” suggesting it hadn’t been there long.

The victim arrived to identify the suspect, and at first he said he was sure Simmons was the suspect, but a few moments later, he asked where the hat was and then said he was sure Simmons was not the suspect.

An officer later found a light blue hat, the same color as a UNC hat, lying in a small puddle near the intersection of NW 15th Street and NW 5th Avenue, exactly where Simmons had gotten out of the Mazda. The officer reported that the hat “appeared to be mostly clean and new, as if it was recently dropped and not sitting there for too long.”

Post Miranda, Simmons reportedly said he had been behind a bar, waiting for his girlfriend to pick him up; he said he had been yelling at his girlfriend on his phone because they had been on a party bus and she had left him at the bar, but he had not argued with anyone else. He said his girlfriend picked him up, they left the area, and that’s when he was stopped by the officer.

Simmons has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, tampering with evidence, and resisting an officer without violence; he was also booked on warrants for failing to appear at a hearing for a traffic case and violating probation in a drug case. He has juvenile convictions in 2006 and 2007 and one adult felony conviction; he was sentenced to two years of probation in 2022 but has violated his probation multiple times, and a warrant for his arrest was issued in November 2024. Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered him held without bail until the probation case is resolved and also ordered him held without bail on the new charges, pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s office to hold him without bail until trial; if the judge denies the motion, bail will be set at that hearing.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.